Thursday, March 19, 2009

Where do women create?

I love art magazines. I spend far to much time and money on them. I am a magazine editors dream. I pour over them. Articles, Ads, Listings, Credits. I read the whole thing. I look up all the links that interest me. I hold on to the issues for years.Recently Stampington & Co has come out with a gorgeous new title called Where Women Create. The issues are filled with splendid spaces and studios. Light filled and charming. Some are bigger then my entire living space! I stare into them trying to imagine working there. Would that same place work for me? Is that the kind of storage that would finally end the battle with my own supplies? A girl can dream!My "studios" have never quite reached those heights of organizational glory or open spaced liberation. I have at times shared my studio space with freelance squirrels and mice. Like them I occupy unfinished attics or basements, wherever I can carve out a niche for myself. At the moment it is yet another cellar. This one is not to bad, in fact, I think I have a bit more room then in past incarnations and my gathering of cast off cabinets and tables are finally adding up to some actual storage/work surface! There is of course, always the need for more light and heat and when those circumstances keep me from working I also am a bit of a bag lady. OK, I am a Major Bag Lady! I perpetually lug materials and books with me. Even as I type this beside me is a bag filled with a half finished doll, the works of a new pattern, a sketch book, and the fabric I selected for my latest owl. Hey, you never know when you will get a moment of inspiration or an hour to work on something and natural daylight and feeling warm are a total bonus!Do I long for an expansive light filled studio? You bet! But I can also see how Vagabond Artistry is how this women creates.